Michelle Darmody: The swinging pendulum of January

In January I swing like a pendulum between my perceived new, healthier self and the more usual me. The me who wants to sit on the couch, eat comfort food, with a pile of books and films at my side, and wait for the evenings to brighten up before facing the world.

One January morning breakfast is homemade granola filled with seeds and nuts, topped with organic yoghurt and the next it is slices of fried black pudding on toast with eggs and lashings of butter. Today’s recipes are a microcosm of my January moods; one extremely healthy, one not and another somewhere in the middle.

Cinnamon scrolls are rich and heavy and not for everyday. The filling is made up of chopped nuts, butter and sugar that seeps into the dough as it bakes. They are very tasty eaten warm and sticky soon after they are taken out of the oven. The fig compote in the sponge can also be made independently and used in porridge or with yogurt at breakfast time. If you are feeling more virtuous, and veering towards the healthier side, the pumpkin seed buns are a good option. They contain spelt flour which, for many, is easier to digest than wheat and are packed with seeds, bran and wheatgerm for added fibre. The orange zest adds a nice hint of citrus.